Cheesecakes

As many people know, I make and sell cheesecakes - moreso around the holidays - but I make them year round. I have decided to share with you how I do them. These cheesecakes are not hard to make; rather they are time consuming but come out beautiful and taste yummy.

I start every cheesecake with a basic recipe of the following: 4 8oz bricks of cream cheese, 4 eggs, 1 cup sour cream, 1 tablespoon of vanilla, 3 tablespoons of four, 1 cup of sugar.

First I bring the cream cheese to room temperture, then I put them in a mixing bowl and beat them with an electric mixer until smooth. I then add the eggs and beat again. Then I add the sugar, sour cream and flour and mix well. Finally I add the vanilla (or any other extract that I would be using for flavor).

The cheescake I recently made that I am going to share with you is a Strawberry cheesecake. After I made my basic batter I took 1/3 of the batter and added 1.5 cups of strawberry glaze and 1.5 cups of fresh, chopped strawberries. I poured this into a prepared cheescake pan (with a graham cracker crust). Next I added a layer of strawberry glaze - about 1.5 cups. In retrospect I should have used less because I do not want my layers to separate like they do - I would say 3/4 to 1 cup of glaze. Lastly, I tooke the remaining 2/3 of the batter and poured it slowly over into the pan spreading the batter evenly. I then piped 1/4 cup of strawberry glaze onto the top and swirled with a tooth pick. I baked the cheesecake in a waterbath for 55 minutes at 350 degrees.Once the 55 minutes is up - I shut off the oven and open the door - allowing the cheesecake to cool in the oven. I then refridgerate the cheesecake over night. This will allow for the cheesecake to release from the pan easily. Once removed I then piped strawberry mousse around the edges of the cheesecake and added fresh sliced strawberries with the strawberry glaze to the center. The next time I make this cheesecake I will freeze it before I garnish and cut - I think this will prevent my layers from separting and falling apart - I have noticed that this happens when I put a fruit glaze layer in my cheesecakes as this has not happened with my other ones.

I learn from my mistakes and either way this cheesecake was very yummy!! Please enjoy making your own!!

If you are still coming here - Thank you! I have revamped the blog - to Leona's Many Projects. I wanted a place where I could talking about my many things I do rather than just stamping. If you know me - you know I am a woman of MANY talents and I also want to share those stories with you. Changing the name of the blog will allow me to keep you up to date with me and keep up with my crazyness!! I hope to share my recipes, cooking/baking, sewing/quilting along with all of my paper crafting and anything else I do. Including photography. Matt bought me a new camera for Christmas and it is one of my goals to take better photos and learn to use my Adobe photo editing software.

More posts coming soon - I promise!!

It's that time of year again - the 3rd Saturday of every September is Troy Fire Departments annual Clambake. So I try to every year - to create some things that can go into the Chinese Auction. This year I did glass etching. Due to technology and software, my ability to use it to my advantage and patience I think I got some great glass etching for the auction.

I used my cricut to cut these images into to vinyl. Because fire department related items are not on a normal 'cartridge' I used a program called Inkscape and SureCutsALot to cut these images.

I found a wolf and maltese cross made of flames so I etched that into the plate below:


Peeling the negative out of this image was time consuming but the outcome of the final product was great!!

Then I used the SCAL software again to cut the works EMS and Firefighter - I etched these onto the ornaments below. It is hard to see in the photo and it is suttle in real life as well. I took Pledge Future Shine floor wax pour it into the bulbs and then added fine glitter. I may add ribbon to these...we will see.

I found this maltese cross online and cut it with the SCAL program. The detail work was almost too big for these votive holders but had I cut them any smaller it would not have worked for these.

Lastly, I made some domino key chains. After sanding the smooth side of the domino and drilling holes I used alcohol based inks to lay color on the domino. Once dry I stamped random flames using StazOn black ink. Again once it was dry I covered it with a clear shiny glaze. Then I added the wire and keychain attachements.

I may have a few more keychains done before this weekend. I am glad I was able to get this stuff together for the FD. I hope that it helps with raising money!!

Happy Waiting

A friend of mine found out she was pregnant over the weekend - with a situation similar to mine she was told she wasn't but knew something wasn't right. I am glad now she knows :)

I love when I know the stamp I want and find the right piece of paper. Once that was decided (which only took seconds) the rest of the card fell into place. This is the card that I made her; I was very happy with the turn out.

I really like how I was able to paper piece the dress and purse together on this card. To give it some demention I did use my markers to shade the dress and purse along with the rest of the outfit.

I finally got my Nestibilities to work in the cuttlebug and I see myself using that A LOT!! It adds such a nice finishing touch. I am so happy to be back in studio - no more dust on my stamps!

Images: TAC How Swell, Words: SU Swell News Cardstock/Paper: barely banana, mellow moss, white, printed paper given to me in a Wish RAK Ink: Palette Noir, Charcoal Markers: Prismacolor Cinnamon toast and Green Tea Tria Pantone blender, Gray 1 489T and 475T Accessories: organza ribbon, pop dots, cuttlebug dot embossing folder, Nestibilities Rectangles, Martha Stewart lace punch, Prima Flower, Seed bead, Clearstar Jellyroll pen Techinques: layers, paper piecing, coloring

I have found my creativity!!
I am excitied about that. Madelyn and I re-organized the studio so that we can work in there. There is one more table I want to clear and re-organize so that Madelyn can have a place to work. She will be excited once I tell her that space is for her (then that gives me my area back too :) )
I have played with my Christmas stamps, polymer clay, sewing, flowersoft and I will post pictures soon. I have been slowly buying somethings that I would like to try and I can not wait to DIG in!!
Last night I played with decorating dominos - I know that is something thats old but its new to me so I can not wait to see the final project. I want to make some polymer clay embellishements since I have pulled the clay back out. I am also working on some simple clean christmas cards - this should be a great way for me to mass produce. The hardest part for me is to create a simple card. I also am finishing up some birthday cards that I started this summer - I made a bid stack of them because my girls go through so many!!
Recently I have bought some twinkling H20s, embossing folders, flowersoft, nestibilities and got some great deal at a local scrapbooking store - it was stuff a bag for $25 - that included stamps, embellishements, stickers, paints, fibers, papers etc.

More to come real soon!!